An Alternate Explanation for Existence

By Anil Kala

[A curious man standing on a beach, blissfully unaware that earth is round, wondered what lies beyond the horizon! He embarked on a long journey in a dead straight line to explore the end of earth. Nature was kind; his journey progressed uneventfully but sluggishly. He crossed the ocean, walked across the desert and overcame mountains and as was inevitable passed through the same spot from where he had begun his journey. It was a long time ago; things had changed during his sojourn. He could not recognize the place and said, “Deja Vu“.

We are like this man unaware, always asking, “What beyond that? What after then”? ad nauseum. Like Neti Neti*, these questions are absurd. There are no straight lines only warped space and warped time. The ends are seamlessly joined with the beginning like in a loop. We pass through same space and same time albeit after a long interval, yet do not recognize them.Time does not move forward endlessly nor directions disappear in endless space.]

Our situation is akin to a moving dot confined within a square. There is no way the dot can come out of the square, similarly we have no way of knowing what, if any thing at all, lies beyond death. Death is an irreversible event, therefore impossible to obtain first hand information on afterlife, if there is any. Yet man has never stopped propounding various theories regarding existence beyond life. There are people who believe life breaks at death and we go to either heaven or hell depending on our conduct during lifetime, others believe in rebirth and progressive evolution of life culminating in Nirvana/Moksha, still others like Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus are amazed at its absurdity. It will always be speculative to guess what could possibly lie beyond death. If we could relate this paradox to a mathematical sequence where first three or four terms are known and we are asked to find out the next term of the sequence, we can possibly arrive at a much better understanding of existence. Is there a way to look for parallels in nature and extrapolate sequence of existence beyond death?

Nature has a way of sustaining itself by procreation. It is not just the living things that procreate but also the non-living things such as stars, galaxies, hills, rivers etc. All things we see regenerate either as replica of itself or a near clone. Procreation is seen all around the universe. Therefore death is not termination of existence not if we consider a parallel in nature, the procreation. Along with procreation most wide spread phenomenon is a dynamic state of equilibrium; the tendency of things to settle down in a state of dynamic equilibrium. We see seasons following a rhythmic pattern so do days and night, planets settling down in orbit of stars etc. There is one more way for events to proceed; an exhaustive energy consuming process leading to eventual disappearance of object. Is this kind of process natural? If we consider Big Bang theory, one would believe formation of universe in a cataclysmic explosion from a singularity. There is no sure answer that the universe will continue spreading ad-infinitum or we reach a stage after which universe starts contracting and collapse again into a singularity and begin all over again. There is enough evidence to suggest that there is slow down in spreading of universe therefore logical that it will contract again into a singularity. All these phenomena point to a relentless continuity. While steady state cyclical situation is wide spread; the slow but sure way to extinction for inefficient and weak in living things has been part of our verified history. Therefore, continuous evolution and regular extinction is basic nature.

We now have initial elements of sequence enough to extrapolate for next element of the sequence. We see that procreation is universal and a dynamic cyclical state natural, and rise and decline of species basic nature, therefore death can be termination of existence for some and an interface to next order existence for others. If some species survive death, it is logical to presume that some will continue to survive higher-level existence and go on and on while others will become extinct at various stages. Constant evolution will mean a stage will be reached where these highly evolved species will be in position to create a universe of their own.

They do not become Gods, but mere creators incapable of interfering in activities of their own creation. Our world is one such creation full of imperfection. There is no God to interfere; the world proceeds along in line with its creator’s rules until some of these worlds’ creatures will create other worlds. After having created a world of their own, these super-evolved creatures are now ready for quietus and like salmon dissolve their existence of their own volition.

* Neti Neti (Sanskrit) – not this, not this. In ancient Hindu philosophy God is considered impossible to define therefore in the negative way they say God is not this….

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